


Tell 'Em

by hyperlydian



Series: Surfer bros [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Bromance, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Surfer bros, aka extremely my shit, teenage boy idiocy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2018-11-07 16:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11062335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyperlydian/pseuds/hyperlydian
Summary: Sehun inhales deeply and his chest aches with the warm weight of Jongin in his arms.





	Tell 'Em

**Author's Note:**

> For Liz! It's based off this one picture but idk where it went. it was also going to turn into a porn odyssey. Liz, my sincere apologies for that, but I thought this was better than no fic at all. I hope you are still willing to speak to me.
> 
> The title comes from the song called [Tell 'Em](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3bSCZXKvUA) by Sleigh Bells.

The pocket of Jongin’s pants vibrates, jerking him awake from where he was sleeping on top of his covers, and he fumbles for it, groaning.  
  
“What.”  
  
“What did you do to my phone, you asshole?”  
  
Jongin moved the phone away from his ear slightly, looking at the display as though to make sure it was on. “Aren’t you talking to me on it?”  
  
“Yes,” Sehun says, sounding more and more irritated by the second, “but I had to go through my contacts and dial ‘Titty King’ to call you.”  
  
“Oh yeah,” Jongin says, starting to laugh. “I almost forgot!”  
  
He’s cackling too hard to pay attention to Sehun cursing him out on the other end of the line as he remembers how he had stolen Sehun’s phone at the bonfire the night before and changed most of the names in his contacts list.  
  
“I’m serious, dickwad, come change them all back.”  
  
“I can’t!” Jongin sputters out through his laughter. “I don’t remember who I change to what.”  
  
Sehun sighs at him through the phone and Jongin sobers slightly, peeking at the clock. “Oh, what the hell, Sehun. It’s the asscrack of dawn.”  
  
“That’s what you get.” Jongin rolls over, neck cracking as he realizes belatedly that he’d slept in his clothes from the night before, and mumbles incoherently into the phone. “Don’t try and get out of this by acting cute. If you don’t fix this, I’ll come down to the shop today and tell your dad what really happened when came back from Hawaii last summer and there was foam all over the — “  
  
“Alright, alright!” Jongin cuts in, sitting up in alarm. “Just… send out a mass text asking everyone to say who they are, or something.”  
  
“I actually hate you so much.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Jongin says, waving Sehun off even though the gesture can’t be seen through the phone. He pulls off the one sock he’s wearing and undoes the button of his jeans, sliding them down and then getting tangled with just one leg free. He swears and hears Sehun snort at him through the phone. “Hey, Dad said there were gonna be some big swells today. I’ll be by to pick you up in ten.”  
  
“Do you know what time it is?”  
  
“You called _me_ this early, genius.” Jongin gropes around the floor of his room in the dark for a pair of trunks, not bothering to change his shirt. Soon it would be too cold to surf without a wetsuit, but he wanted to take advantage of the warm weather. “Don’t forget your board,” he says over Sehun yelling ”wait, at least tell me who you renamed ‘Tightass’!” and hangs up.  
  
He probably should feel bad about Sehun’s phone, Jongin thinks as he searches for his car keys in the mess of his room. After five minutes of searching, Jongin finally finds them hiding underneath his pillow, and heads down into the shop to grab his board from the storage room.  
  
Except Jongin’s totally not sorry at all, because if it wasn’t for him, Sehun would be the one in _his_ phone as ‘Tightass’. And not in a good way.  
  
#  
  
By the time they come back into shore, Sehun has fifteen replies to his mass text and he hits Jongin in the head with his board when he sees that Sehun’s dad was the one he had renamed ‘Tightass’.  
  
“Hey!” Jongin yelps, rubbing his head. “It fits!”  
  
Sehun rolls his eyes. “Yeah, and ‘Titty King’ is _such_ a realistic nickname for you — oh, shit.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You didn’t change Caroline’s name, did you?”  
  
Jongin peeks over Sehuns shoulder at the phone display. “I don’t remember? What did you have her as before?”  
  
The phone buzzes and a reply pops up, and Jongin nearly falls over laughing.  
  
“You had her in there as ‘bitch’! Oh my _god_ , that’s why I didn’t change it.” Jongin clutches his stomach and Sehun resists the urge to throw his phone at Jongin’s head. “Because it was already perfect!”  
  
Sehun’s phone buzzes three more times in quick succession and he winces. His ex-girlfriend, Caroline, was definitely pissed off.  
  
Jongin flops down onto the sand next to his board, catching his breath and the sand sticks to his damp skin. “What’d she say?”  
  
Sehun slips his phone back into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt as he pulls it on, settling onto the sand next to Jongin. “You know, the usual.”  
  
“God, she’s such a bitch.”  
  
“To be fair, I probably wasn’t very nice to her.”  
  
“True,” Jongin pokes Sehun in the side hard. “You pulled the fade-away, you dick. That’s like, the most dick-ish thing a person can do, after breaking up over a text message.”  
  
“I know, I just — “ Sehun swallows, feeling guilty all over again. “I didn’t know how to tell her I just didn’t… like her like that.”  
  
Jongin throws an arm over his eyes to block out the morning sun, and the sand stuck to his forearm glitters. “Then why were you dating her, if you didn’t like her?”  
  
Sehun shrugs, knowing that even if Jongin can’t see him do it, he’ll know what Sehun means anyway. They know each other well enough for that kind of thing to be true.  
  
Caroline had been… an experiment. Or maybe an attempted escape. She deserved better than what Sehun had given her just because she wasn’t who he had really wanted.  
  
Sehun shakes his head, shaking some of the water out of his hair. He can feel himself starting to get sunburned and he doesn’t want to think about this anymore. the idea of want is complicated for Sehun, and thinking about it, especially with Jongin around, makes his insides get all tangled up until he feels sick.  
  
“Come on,” Sehun slaps his palm on Jongin’s bare stomach and Jongin groans but doesn’t move. “I’m starting burn.”  
  
Jongin grabs Sehun’s arm and tugs until they’re both sprawled on the beach and Sehun can feel the sand trickling down the neck of his sweatshirt. “You and your milkmaid skin,” Jongin mumbles, curling a knee around Sehun’s hip until he’s wrapped around Sehun like a barnacle. He buries his face into Sehun’s chest and Sehun sighs resignedly. “‘M tired,” he mumbles. “Nap time.”  
  
“You’re too old for nap time,” Sehun says as Jongin’s wet hair drips onto the skin of his neck, but he’s already given up. Their legs tangle together and as Jongin’s breathing evens out, Sehun inhales deeply and his chest aches with the warm weight of Jongin in his arms.  
  
#  
  
Sehun is never going to say anything. He decided that a long time ago, that first time he’d watched Jongin run into the shore, shaking his wet hair out of his eyes, and the muscles of his chest had flexed as he jogged with board under one arm. He had called out to Sehun, smile wide and bright, and Sehun’s breath had caught, and he thought _oh_ , and the sudden heat in his chest and belly had felt dangerous and terrifying.  
  
He had started dating Caroline a few months later, when that feeling in his stomach at thickened and mixed with his familiarity with Jongin into something that was more than attraction, and closer to something Sehun didn’t even want to think about.  
  
Caroline was captain of the girls soccer team at school and Jongin had liked her right up until Sehun had introduced her as his girlfriend. After that, he had become sarcastically hostile, and it was impossible to have the two in the same room. Caroline hadn’t cried when she and Sehun finally broke up. Sehun had avoided her for two weeks, but eventually they ran into each other at the bookstore and she had reamed him out in the middle of the science fiction section. Sehun had probably deserved it, but he hadn’t been able to help himself from changing her name in his contacts after she had apologized for not having a dick and told him that only an asshole dated someone else out of denial.  
  
If he is being really honest, Sehun knows he was just angry at himself for being so transparent. Caroline definitely deserves a lot better.  
  
Jongin had been happy at least, crowing loudly over the noise of their video game when Sehun had broken the news, and Sehun had laughed in spite of himself, the ache in his chest feeling lighter and heavier, all at once.  
  
They’re seniors though, and now that school’s started, Sehun is busy with applications for college next year. He and Jongin don’t talk about it, but sometimes Sehun thinks it isn’t so hard. What’s one more secret for him to keep from Jongin, anyway? But sometimes Sehun will drop his backpack, which is practically bursting at its seams with textbooks, in the backseat of Jongin’s 4runner, and something sad tints Jongin’s eyes, like he knows Sehun plans on leaving.  
  
#  
  
The best thing about Jongin’s beat-up old 4runner is that when they take their boards out of the back, he and Jongin can take a couple sleeping bags and lay out in the truck bed with a six pack that they’re not supposed to have.  
  
Sehun always likes these nights, even if Jongin’s usually a bit useless, falling asleep not long after they settle down. Jongin has always had a talent for sleeping any time, in any place, and if Sehun happens to be around, he tends to latch on, steadfastly ignoring all of Sehun’s attempts to escape.  
  
Now, though, he’s gotten used to it, letting Jongin clutch at his arm and snuffle into his neck sleepily, and it’s kinda nice because Jongin’s body heat keeps him warm even when there’s a cold breeze coming in off the sea. Sehun pulls Jongin in a little tighter, and he whines when Sehun jostles him to grab the corner of one of the blankets because his feet are cold. Jongin seems to know instinctively what’s wrong, because he presses the bare soles of his too-warm feet to the tops of Sehun’s, and tips his head up, whining sleepily, “Stop moving.”  
  
Sehun sighs and Jongin’s hold on his shirt tightens even though his eyes are closed. His skin looks beautiful in the half-light of the night, the planes of his cheekbones stark and the round edges of his lips softer because of it, and Sehun doesn’t know what possesses him to do it — he was never going to do this, he had _promised_ himself — but he ducks his head, and presses a soft kiss to Jongin’s mouth.  
  
In his arms, Jongin stiffens and Sehun pulls back, untangling their feet and sitting up abruptly. Out of the corner of his eye, Sehun can see Jongin looking up at him, wide-eyed, but Sehun ignores him, bringing his knees into his chest and holding onto them tightly because he feels like he might fall apart if he lets go.  
  
Jongin is shifting in the pile of blankets behind him and Sehun tenses his jaw, waiting for him to say something, waiting for them to break like he had always feared, but it never comes. When he finally turns to look, minutes, hours later, Jongin is curled up into a tiny ball under several blankets, his back to Sehun, and Sehun feels cold, right down to his core, and it has nothing to do with the wind.  
  
#  
  
Sehun isn’t sure why, but he doesn’t walk away. He stays, hugging his knees and staring out at the shore, for hours, until the sun begins to rise. By then, he’s been cold for so long that he doesn’t even realize he’s still shivering until Jongin drapes a blanket over his shoulders. Then he feels Jongin’s weight settle next to him and blinks.  
  
“What — “  
  
Jongin shushes him, bumping their shoulders together, and Sehun’s stomach tightens into an even worse knot than it had twisted into during the night. Jongin is warm against his side, hair mussed with sleep as he rubs at his eyes, and Sehun doesn’t want to lose this — would do almost anything not to.  
  
They’re not watching the sunrise, in fact, Sehun can see the rays streaming out from behind them across the beach, but the waves of the ocean glitter in the morning light, almost painfully bright and the horizon is hazy in the distance.  
  
“Did you mean it?” Jongin finally says and Sehun’s breath catches, because he knows exactly what Jongin is talking about. Jongin isn’t looking at him, eyes fixed on a seagull walking along the shore. “‘Cause if you didn’t, we can just pretend it didn’t happen. Nothing has to change.”  
  
Sehun wants to lie, he’s never wanted to lie so badly in his life, and his fingernails are digging into his palms so hard he knows they’ll leave marks. He opens his mouth to answer, but nothing comes out.  
  
“If you meant it though,” Jongin continues, and Sehun can feel his heart speed up, caught somewhere between anxiousness and terror, “that— that could be okay too.”  
  
“What,” Sehun croaks out at last, not believing his ears, and Jongin ( _finally_ ) turns to look at him. Sehun can’t imagine how wide his own eyes must be, but it feels like the pieces of himself are about to shake apart because this can’t be happening, there’s no way that after last night, Jongin could be _smiling_ at him.  
  
But he is, and then he laughs a little at the look on Sehun’s face, taking Sehun’s jaw gently into his palm, and kisses him.  
  
Jongin’s mouth is warm like the morning sunlight, and so soft and giving that it takes Sehun’s breath away. He’s rarely let himself think about what it would be like to kiss Jongin, the idea too dangerous to dwell on, but the reality of this kiss, Jongin’s lips pressing against his as his hand pulls Sehun’s face even closer, and Jongin’s nose brushing his cheek as they shift, is so much more than his poor imagination could ever have come up with.  
  
Jongin’s tongue licks into his mouth a little, sliding along the back of Sehun’s upper lip, before he pulls away, and it sends a little thrill up Sehun’s spine. He opens his eyes. Jongin’s face is still close and he can see his own reflection in Jongin’s dark irises. Jongin drops his hand and Sehun licks his lips. They taste like Jongin.  
  
“Your mouth tastes terrible,” Jongin says, but he’s still smiling and reaching out to tug on the strings on Sehun’s sweatshirt. Sehun shoves his shoulder lightly.  
  
“You should taste your own morning breath,” he says, and his fingers catch on Jongin’s shirt, keeping him close. “It’s rank.”  
  
Everything is startlingly clear to Sehun’s eyes and he can see every single one of Jongin’s eyelashes and each little crinkle at the corner of his eyes when his smile widens. It’s like all the little things Sehun’s always loved about Jongin have been made new again.  
  
“Rude,” Jongin mutters and moves to flick Sehun’s nose, but before he can, Sehun uses his grip on Jongin’s shirt to pull him in for another kiss.  
  
#


End file.
